Q: Can you suggest any alternatives to the “store-bought” fungicides for bermudagrass? They get awfully expensive when you are trying to control fungus in an acre of lawn! With the wet weather we had earlier I need a maintenance program...

Q: My pregnant onion is having babies and I’m not sure how to take care of them. A: Pregnant onion, Ornithogalum caudatum or Ornithogalum longibracteatum, is a fascinating houseplant. The swollen bulb sends forth long green leaves and tall flower...

Q: I put out four flats of pansies in October at our subdivision entrance. They were young plants, not at all root bound. The blooms that were on them when purchased opened and looked pretty, but then cold weather came...

Q: I had a soil sample from my vegetable garden tested by the Extension service. The resulting report recommended I use ammonium nitrate (34-0-0) and 5-10-15 fertilizer. However, when I went to several garden centers they did not carry the...

Q: I recently heard you advise gardeners to mulch with cottonseed meal, saying that it provides nutrients to azaleas, blueberries and raspberries. However, when I went to the feed store to buy some, I was told to use cottonseed hulls....

Q: I have a question about what to do to kill weeds. I have bermudagrass in the front lawn and fescuegrass in back. They are infested with crabgrass and chickweed, etc. I purchased several weed and feed products to use...

Q: What is the difference in bone and blood meal? How are they used and where do they come from? A: Blood meal is made by flash-drying blood that is collected at a slaughterhouse. It is high in nitrogen, with...

Q: I have always wanted a green lawn in winter. How much will it hurt my zoysiagrass lawn to overseed with ryegrass this winter? A: Turf researcher Dr. Clint Waltz says there is no real reason or advantage to overseed...

Q: We have bermudagrass in our front yard and fescue in the back. We have been served by a local lawn maintenance company for several years. They always want to start the new season with an application of pre-emergent and...

Q: I inherited a Christmas cactus when my mother passed away. I do not know how much light it needs or the amount of water. Also, what about fertilizer? A: I was delighted recently to find flower buds on the...

Q: After reading a suggestion in your column last winter, I planted a piece of ginger root from the grocery store. It grew outside in a pot all summer. Recently I dug up a few roots and found that they...

Q: This is my year to shine in the garden with compost! I have a plastic compost bin. Yet I constantly fight fire ants in the compost and find everything is slow to decompose. Every book I read makes composting...

Q: My wife brought these roots from Russia and planted them in the yard last year. We got almost a five-gallon bucketful when we harvested them. They are crunchy and tasty and she says they are good for you. She...

Q: I have a row of ten foot tall ‘Nellie Stevens’ hollies. Last summer I noticed severe yellowing of the leaves on two of them. Recently I crawled under these large shrubs and discovered on the trunks concentric rings where...

Q: I live on the Chattahoochee river and we are inundated with frogs! Some nights their noise is so loud we can’t go to sleep until midnight. Is there anything that will repel them – or at least teach them...

Q: How can I get my daffodils that haven’t bloomed in several years to bloom again? A: Daffodils bloom in response to how happy they were the previous year. If you fertilized yours last spring or divided the clump and...

Q: We had freezing weather after my zoysiagrass had started greening up. It turned brown afterward and now, three weeks later, it has little greenery showing. What should I do now? A: Warm temperatures in March can make warm-season grasses...